


Empty

by chellerrific



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Probably nothing that isn’t common knowledge by now, Spoilers for the last few episodes, not actually angsty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-05
Updated: 2018-08-05
Packaged: 2019-06-22 07:22:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15576735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chellerrific/pseuds/chellerrific
Summary: The gang returns to Glory Run Road, where something unexpected is waiting for them.





	Empty

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, uh, quickly so as not to make notes longer than the fic: I wasn’t planning to add to the glut of post-26 fix-it fic but I had this image of what I thought was one of the more interesting ways things could play out (so many options!!) and my alpha (reader not some weird rl abo thing) Phil challenged me to write at least 300 words that were completely self-indulgent so I decided to bang this out after all. Very open-ended, just something that excites me because of all the possibilities it would bring! And I miss my children being hopeful.
> 
> Keg is still there because I want her to be and my fiction is just as real as theirs.

It had been an excruciatingly long week, nobody was going to deny that. The Mighty Nein trudged down Glory Run Road, each of them feeling so much heavier than they had before.

They would be okay. Lorenzo was dead, the Iron Shepherds were gone for good, they had finished their jobs for the Gentleman successfully, and, most importantly, they were all back together again and could start the process of rebuilding as a family.

Well, almost all of them.

Yasha hadn’t shown any outward signs of emotion when she’d gotten the news. To the untrained eye, she might have seemed to be exactly the same as always—but not to her friends. She hadn’t spoken aloud once, not even a whisper. Her eyes were downcast instead of gazing defiantly straight ahead. There was something in her posture, the slump of her shoulders, that looked a bit... _defeated._

Jester had wailed, a soul-piercing, heartbreaking sound, when she got the news. She had buried herself in Fjord’s chest. He teared and sniffed as he comforted her weakly with gentle touches and quiet murmurs.

Today, however, she was almost her old self again, bubbly with an edge of aggressiveness to it that led the others to wonder how much of it was hope and how much of it was denial. She talked about Molly in the present tense, about how she would tell him off for his rudeness _when_ he came back. Nobody wanted to be the one to give her a reality check. For one thing, it would have meant giving it to themselves as well.

And so here they were, again on Glory Run Road, with two clerics in tow, to see if maybe, just _maybe,_ they could make a miracle happen.

“This is the place,” Beau said grimly, pointing just ahead. She doubted she’d ever forget it, no matter how much she wanted to.

As they approached, they could see the post, but no jacket adorned it. Blown off, stolen, a dozen different things could have happened to it. Nobody _really_ expected it to be on Molly’s person at this point.

Except when they came to a stop at the grave...

“What the fuck,” said Keg.

...It had been dug up, just a shallow jagged trench in the ground with dirt caved in and half-spilled out of it.

Yasha shoved past the others, dropping to her knees. She began sifting through the dirt with her bare hands, but it was obvious that the grave was empty.

She whipped around fiercely. “Where is he?”

“We left him right here!” Nott insisted.

Beau reached out blindly, grabbing Fjord’s shoulder in one hand and Caleb’s in the other. A smile was appearing across her face. “Guys. _Guys._ Do you realize what this means?”

“Grave robbers!” Nott said, slapping a fist down against an open palm.

Jester clapped. “No, silly! It means Molly got up and left himself! He’s alive!”

“Wait,” said Keg, but nobody did.

“Do we really—I mean, not to be a downer, but are we going to be okay in assuming that? The odds are...” Fjord seesawed a hand.

“He’s done it once before, Fjord!” Jester nearly squealed.

_“Wait,”_ said Keg again.

“So what are the odds of someone rising from the dead _twice?”_ Fjord didn’t want to kill the joy he saw flickering across his friends’ faces—heavens knew they all desperately needed that—but he was worried that it would hurt much worse later if he let their hopes soar now.

“What are the odds of a man doing that even once?” Caleb said. “I am just saying, if we are going to speak of probabilities, to me it seems _more_ likely that he would do it twice than another random person would manage it the once. I know that is somewhat tangential but statistics kind of, er, fly out the window where Mollymauk is concerned.”

Fjord knew he’d lost his best chance at an ally in cool-headedness. “Still not very likely,” he insisted, but it sounded weak even to him. Certainly he wanted it to be true as much as anyone.

“Oh, be quiet,” Jester said, not unkindly. “Molly is alive!”

“He must have found your note and gone back to Zadash, Caleb,” Nott said, her eyes lit up with promise.

“That is as good a place to start looking as any,” Caleb said, reaching down to muss her hair. He was smiling too, small and restrained but so painfully genuine.

Caduceus stepped around them to crouch by Yasha, pinching some of the dirt between his fingers thoughtfully, rubbing it, sniffing it.

“What do you think, Clay?” Beau asked.

“Huh?” He looked over his shoulder at her. “Oh, sure, I’d love to go to Zadash!”

Beau facepalmed. “No, I mean, is there anything you can tell us about this grave or who was in it or what?”

“Well, first of all you really should make them deeper.”

Beau threw her hands in the air. “Somebody else!”

“Is there any way to know... what happened to the body we buried in it? It was only a week ago,” Caleb tried.

“I don’t sense any magic, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything,” Caduceus said slowly. “I gotta say, it doesn’t really look like someone came along and dug this up to take the body. First of all, that would be really weird.”

“All of this is weird,” Keg said.

“But also, it’s like they only dug out the upper body or something and then pulled the whole thing out from there. Not a very respectful process.” He scratched his head. “I guess digging up a body in the first place is pretty disrespectful anyway.”

“Why would someone dig him up, though?” Beau said. “No, I mean—why would someone dig _him_ up? We’re about two miles past the middle of nowhere. Would someone really just be moseying on down the road like, hey, think I’ll steal me a body? It doesn’t really seem like a spur-of-the-moment choice someone would make, and this spot is too random to plan for that.”

“Plus this looks like it was done by hand,” Caduceus added.

Beau and Jester caught each other’s eyes. “He’s alive!” they shrieked simultaneously, jumping up and down.

“Or maybe a gardening spade. Trippy.” Caduceus’ eyes glazed as he drifted off, thinking about digging graves with the world’s smallest shovel.

Nott carefully put a hand on Yasha’s shoulder. They were about the same height with her crouched down like this. “Yasha? Did you hear that? Molly’s alive.”

_“Maybe,_ ” Fjord said.

“Most likely,” Beau said.

“Probably definitely,” Jester said.

Yasha nodded once, then finally stood and turned to face the others. “Let’s go,” she said. “Thank you, Nott.”

Nott beamed and wrapped her arms around Yasha’s leg in a three-foot-height-difference hug.

Collectively they began to shuffle around to continue along the road, Zadash still a long way away. The promise that Molly might already be there waiting for them was more than enough incentive to keep moving.

Beau cleared her throat. “You know, uh, maybe when we see Molly, you can skip the part where I...”

“Squealed like a schoolgirl with a crush?” Jester said.

“I did not!” Beau snapped. “But yeah... that part.”

“I won’t say anything under one condition,” Keg said, jabbing Beau in the side. “You explain to me what the fuck is going on and what that was all about.”

Beau draped an arm behind the back of Keg’s head, wrist coming to rest on Keg’s shoulder. “Funny story, we kinda don’t really fucking know?”

Keg wasn’t the only one with questions. Everyone, privately, was mulling over plenty of their own. Had Molly made it safely to Zadash? Would he remember them? Would he still be... Molly? But they had reason to believe he was alive after all, and as far as his friends were concerned right now, they could figure out the rest when the time came.


End file.
